{"id":581382,"date":"2026-08-26T23:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581382\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T23:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:50:11","slug":"the-lunar-eclipse-is-thursday-night-and-it-will-be-visible-all-over-north-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581382\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lunar Eclipse Is Thursday Night, and It Will Be Visible All Over North America"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a great summer to look to the skies, and August has been one of the best months for skygazing<\/a> in recent memory. In addition to a planet parade, a meteor shower and a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is set for the end of August for those in North and South America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The eclipse coincides with the full moon, which occurs on Thursday evening. Per Time and Date, the eclipse begins at 9:23 p.m. ET and lasts until 3:01 a.m. ET, for a total of about 5 and a half hours. The Old Farmer\u2019s Almanac reports that<\/a> August\u2019s full moon peaks in brightness at 12:18 a.m. ET on Friday, which means this is all happening at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMost of the world gets to see this partial lunar eclipse, but the eastern and central US have the best seats. NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/a><\/p>\n

The path is pretty large and includes all of North and South America, along with all of Africa and Europe, seeing at least part of the action. It\u2019s not a full lunar eclipse, even if you\u2019re in the best spot. NASA says<\/a> that about 93% of the moon will be covered, which means you\u2019ll still see a sliver of the moon along with a \u201crusty, coppery tint\u201d along the edge that\u2019s covered. Time and Date bumps that figure up to 96%, so it\u2019s likely somewhere between the two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those in the eastern US and the eastern half of the Midwest will have the best seats in the house for this one. People along the Rocky Mountains will have a better view than most, with the West Coast and Alaska getting at least a partial eclipse. Unlike solar eclipses, which can be dangerous to view, a lunar eclipse is perfectly safe to watch with the naked eye. In fact, using a telescope or binoculars is encouraged to see the eclipse more clearly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s not a total lunar eclipse, August\u2019s Sturgeon Moon doesn\u2019t qualify as a blood moon. It\u2019s close enough that it\u2019ll certainly look like one, though. This is due to the way sunlight interacts with Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The atmosphere scatters blue light, a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering. This leaves only red and orange light to pass through. It\u2019s bent by the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and lands on the moon, giving it a reddish appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Perseids is summer\u2019s most active meteor shower.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Preston Dyches\/NASA<\/p>\n

Part of an action-packed August<\/p>\n

The partial lunar eclipse caps off a very active month for sky enthusiasts. Somewhat strangely, most of the action took place over just one day: Aug. 12, which featured a planet parade, the peak of the Perseids meteor shower and, for those fortunate enough to be in the path, a solar eclipse at sunset. <\/p>\n

This is also the best month of 2026 to view Venus, which is taking a vacation from its spot near the sun, making it much easier to see in the evening after the sun goes down.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Joe\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe is a freelance journalist. It all started with a long-running affection for building his own PCs, which he did for the first time as a teenager. It evolved into a lifelong enjoyment of putting words on the internet about the subject. He’s written for CNET, PCMag, Mashable and SlashGear as a freelance writer, and worked as a Senior Editor at Android Authority for 10 years. When he’s not writing about tech and science, he’s learning the ins and outs of DIY home repair, gaming, playing his bass guitars and posting help on PC building and gaming subreddits. He is a staunch believer that orange juice should have pulp.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a great summer to look to the skies, and August has been one of the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-581382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}